Alex Mozo was not brimming with confidence when he headed off to football practice in August.

He had missed almost his entire junior season at Exeter because of a freak, off-field accident and felt he wasn't as fast as before. He found himself fourth on the depth chart at tailback as practice began.

"I just don't see it happening," he confided to his mother, Harriett. "It's just not like it used to be. It's not gonna be a good year for me because of everything that happened to me."

The preceding 12 months had seen Mozo hospitalized three times, once from a concussion playing lacrosse, twice because of a leg injury suffered when a fork lift he was riding in overturned and fell on his right leg.

He was pinned under the cage of the fork lift and had to be rescued by emergency workers. He didn't suffer any broken bones and avoided a serious injury when the cage hit his head, but the weight of the vehicle damaged the muscles in his upper right thigh, and he was sidelined for weeks.

He was so desperate to get back on the field that he amped up his rehab, but that only made things worse. His right leg swelled to twice its normal size because he over-did it, and he ended up back in the hospital.

That delayed his return even further. He didn't see the field until Week 8; his season amounted to all of three carries.

"Football is all Alex enjoys," Harriett said. "He dreams and eats and sleeps football. He was heartbroken (when he couldn't play)."

He wasn't playing much when this season began, either.

Suddenly, in Week 3, fate smiled at him, and he got a surprise start against Upper Moreland.

"On the first play, I was like, 'I need to make something out of this,' " Mozo told himself, "and I ran (67 yards) for a touchdown. Awesome.

"Second touch - again I run it for a touchdown. Awesome."

Mozo finished that 55-0 romp with 179 rushing yards on just eight carries, half of them finishing in the end zone.

He hasn't been stopped since.

He went for 128 yards the following week, carrying the ball 27 times against a rugged Reading High defense.

The next week, against Muhlenberg, he produced 151 yards.

Last week he ran for 213 yards and two more touchdowns, helping the Eagles improve to 6-0.

He enters tonight's game at Pottsville with 675 yards, fourth-highest in the Berks Football League.

Awesome.

"We knew he was our most physical back," Eagles coach Matt Bauer said of the spirited 5-10, 185-pounder. "But his speed has really shocked me. He was able to pull away from kids when he got into that second level. It seems like he has an extra gear. It's been nice to see."

Mozo is as surprised as anyone.

"I knew I was gonna get a share (of the carries at tailback), but I didn't know I was gonna get what I am right now," he said. "So I'm pretty happy."

The same independent, stubborn, devil-may-care attitude that led him to get hurt in the first place has fueled his return. Pain or not, he has worked to get back on the field - and to stay there.

He was able to run well enough by last spring to start at midfield for the Eagles lacrosse team. By June he was strong and agile enough to finish third in the pro shuttle run at the Berks County Football Combine, a skills competition for underclassmen.

His presence has sparked an Exeter offense that was limited in the early weeks of this season.

"He definitely adds another aspect to the offense," Bauer said. "He takes a little bit of pressure off (quarterback) Kyle (Yocum). The first two weeks, Kyle had to do it all.

"Now, with our running game on track, it seems to take the pressure off Kyle, and it also opens some of the running lanes up for Kyle."

"I think I'm just reaching where I was last year," Mozo said. "If that (accident) didn't happen I'd be so much stronger and a heckuva lot faster (right now). But it is what it is. I just have to make up for last year, so I'm going as hard as I can."

Alex Mozo didn't see his season unfolding as it has.

His mother had faith it would.

"We believe anything is possible if your heart's in it," she said. "Every game I hold my breath; I pray for the best, and the best happens."